‘That is strange,’ I said after a while.
‘What is?’ he asked, confused.
‘Is that a tribe of humans? Standing over there?’ I pointed at a sturdy-framed group of people who were bowing alongside elves.
‘What?’ Shinna asked.
‘No, surely not,’ Asfalon said.
‘It is,’ I whispered. The human guard in red and white did not look up. Apparently, it was a well-known secret one did not share with the elves. They all stared up there. We walked on and did not deviate from the way. They did not say anything; their heads snapped forward, but it was clear they saw it. Their silence annoyed me. ‘Perhaps Odin meant to share this world with men and elves,’ I said brazenly and looked away.
Silence, cold, awkward silence. The elves marched on.
We passed a fine, well-furnished part of the great hall with a high ceiling. Racks of spears, shields and bows, strange deadly weaponry hung on the walls, pennants of a silver-winged beast rampant on a green field were hanging from all the doorways. ‘This way,’ Shinna said and took a smaller door to the right. ‘Must pass this way.’
We walked in, our steps echoing in the high hall, faces appearing and fingers pointing down at us from the higher stories. ‘This, humans, is the House Safiroon’s holiest room.’ Asfalon pointed at the floor. There was a simple slab of marble there. ‘The Croft hold the high fallen of the houses, buried here throughout the ages, so tread lightly and with respect. I would do so in any case,’ he added darkly.
I smiled and nodded. ‘Thank you. Though the word Croft indicates a small farm, no?’
Shinna smiled. ‘Farm to feed the maggots. We have a twisted sense of honor, human. This is a holy place, and elves make light of death, but you do so with a respectful tone. A human will never understand these manners. Here. A few more rooms, and we are past the Citadel.’
I walked after the elves, and Asfalon opened another door and led me on. I looked behind and saw many elves walking in peace. I felt a brief bout of despair, but then one of the elves winked at me. She was pretty, short and wore a guard’s uniform. I smiled, as I was not alone.
CHAPTER 15
We stalked through hallways, Shinna walking behind me, Asfalon before. We took stairs, went up and then down, in tight confines that opened up to beautiful, mysterious courtyards smelling of roses and herbs, and there elven nobles lounged and played curious, stringed and luted instruments, sipping wine and throwing strange-looking gaming pieces. Shinna leaned closer to me. ‘The Feast is always a festive celebration season. It lasts for weeks, even if the actual meeting takes but one. Most everyone who is anyone gather in the city and gossip indecently. The pastime of elves is luxury and scheming, but also arts and Glory.’
‘Sounds like the parliament back home,’ I said. ‘Save for the Glory.’
She smiled and patted my hand. ‘Indeed. That makes all the difference. It gives power to the ones who are blessed and work hard to perfect their craft, instead of those who only know how to speak.’
‘Perhaps so,’ I said.
They guided me to the main hall again, and then a murderous gatehouse, once again. We walked over an indoor moat and then out to the huge, holy White Court. It was massive, and you could probably fit a hundred thousand living beings there. In the middle, was a tall jumble of rocks, spire-like and gray, jutting forlornly towards the sky. Their crosspieces were eroded and soiled by rain, and birds had indeed used them for their natural purposes. Moss covered them in most places, and strange flowers dotted them. In the middle, there were well-carved benches, made of rose redwood.
I stared at the sight.
These were the most ancient of structures. Gods had used them, built them, when the Nine Worlds were young. They looked like nothing, really. Yet, I felt a flutter of excitement, of serenity and peace as I looked over the rubble-strewn ground. I would work to restore them, I would, I promised. If I survived. People and elves had doubted my goals for weeks. I had told them I’d bring the gods back, and for some reason, looking at the rubble, I felt it would make all the difference. Shinna smiled at me as if she knew what I was thinking about.
I looked around. The whole area was indeed white and black tiled, but there was also a number of gray ones mixed in. There was no apparent pattern, but the area looked massive. To the left and right, high walls and towers stretched to the north, and there, in the north wall was what Shinna had called Silver Spires, the palace where we were headed for. On the left, a smaller fort held Bardagoon flags. ‘Is that—’
Asfalon nodded. He looked at the walls and the guards. ‘Father’s thousand are there, nearly all, but he will arrive with Lord Vautan later this week. Onto the Talien Safiroon’s gentle care, Shannon, let us go.’ We walked on, our steps faltering as the noise echoed. On the sides, a wall rose high, wide and armed with towers. Shinna nodded that way. ‘The gate out of the city leads through the palace. There is another gate for the commoners, but this is the military gate. It’s also a fort, really. But Father lives there, so we call it a palace,’ I nodded, shocked by the height of the palace and city gate. It was part of the wall and a slightly round fort of fine make and seven towers, silver-plated spires, what gave it its name. Flags flapped gaily on the top of each one. Hundreds of elves were walking around the area, some purposefully, others deep in their thoughts.
Walking through the area was exhausting.
It seemed we were not getting anywhere, but the elves did not share the concern. They walked on, and I endured the pain and the thirst. We walked past the ancient temple, and I could only imagine the miracles it must have witnessed in times long past. I looked back and immediately saw the short elf woman I had seen earlier. She saw where we were going, hesitated and stopped to look at the Bardagoon flags in the side fort. I frowned but had no choice but to go forward. Finally, after ages, we reached the palace. The royal guards were there, thick as flies on shit, opening doors. We entered, I staggered in, and Asfalon led me to the side. There he eyed a stairway, waited until some nobles walked down them, and we went up. We took some well-carpeted ways and stairs again until I felt the need to heal myself. Then, finally, we arrived. There was a simple, green door in the middle of a corridor, and there was someone speaking beyond it. Asfalon stopped me. He smiled. ‘What is it Lord?’ I asked.
He bowed. ‘The letter explained how you seek to save the wife of the Regent,’ said Asfalon with an excited gleam in his eyes.
‘Yes, why?’ I asked. ‘Of course I would do a favor to the Regent, to save his wife from the Rot that is infesting her. And perhaps he will accept me and let me seek the Eye of Hel.’
He laughed. ‘We didn’t wish to tell you. It is a surprise, and you are about to be very surprised, indeed,’ he said with a small smile. ‘Did we tell you that Bardagoon and Safiroon families have intermarried for long thousands of years?’
‘You did.’
He went on. ‘Aloise Bardagoon is also Aloise Safiroon. She is Shinna’s sister,’ he said, and Shinna smiled at me gently.
She spoke. ‘And if you would heal her today, we would be very grateful.’
Asfalon nodded. ‘And so will be the Regent. My father.’
Shinna grinned and moved to open the door. ‘Father?’ she called out.
He looked up. Her father. Talien Safiroon.
He was an ancient, powerful elf by reputation, but powerful also by his looks. His eyes were peculiar. All the elves had them, strange eyes, but his were yellow. They were burning brightly in the semi-dark. He rose up, a tall one, dressed in chain and yellow robes, his hair cut short and his face wrinkled and ancient. There was also the strange glow on his skin, perhaps made so by age, likely by Embracing the Glory for so long, discovering ways that few others knew. He was what could be called an arch mage, and neither Dana nor I could ever overdo what he could do. He was also protected, a reddish haze flickering in and out of sight as he moved. ‘What is this? Shinna?’
‘Father,’ she said and bowed deep. ‘There is som
eone here. Incredible gift, to be sure.’
He squinted as he looked at us and then turned to his daughter. ‘You are late, very late. You were supposed to come home from Trad a long time ago. I hold you accountable, Asfalon,’ he said with an irritated voice.
Asfalon pulled me in. ‘We bring a gift of peace. She is yours. A human.’ He pointed a finger at me. I was swathed under the cloak.
‘Have you spent too much time in the south?’ Talien asked, scowling. ‘I need no slaves. Will have none, in fact. Go and ask the Coinar nobles. They are stationed in the Fort.’
I looked at the bed, by which the great elf had been sitting. There, under the bed sheets shuddered the woman I had seen Euryale bite before the eyes of her husband, the Regent.
She turned to regard me. I sucked in my breath, both for her terrible condition and because her fate would be mine as well one day if I did not succeed. She was not herself, no. She had been a vibrant, beautiful elfess with bright eyes, but now she was gray, her hair white from pain, her eyes lifeless. The covers moved, and I saw her neck and her shoulder and her chest. It looked like an anthill. The jerky, skeletal things were swarming on her flesh. You could not grab them, no, but they were visible, nonetheless, as Mar shone into the room, and they could not hide under its glare. She stank of decay, and I retched. And Aloise was still pregnant. It was clear. Her belly was very swollen and likely, she was close to her time, but the chunks of missing flesh, the bones that peeked through the mass of rotten flesh? How could the baby survive? She was too weak.
Talien stepped in front of me, enraged. ‘I asked, who is this? How dare you bring a stranger to this room, to witness her degradation? Let her die in peace!’ I nearly put a hand on his shoulder to calm him.
‘Do not touch him, Shannon!’ Asfalon said quickly. ‘His spell will burn you to cinders. He is never without it.’
‘Assassins have been trying to slay me for centuries, stranger, but I still would like to be answered!’ Talien said loudly. ‘Now!’
Shinna stepped to me and took down my cloak. My silvery armor, trimmed with fur shone in the room, and Talien took an incredulous step back. ‘What? How? I’ve seen that armor last time on my niece! Years and years ago, so long ago! Why do you—’
‘I met her,’ I said with a small voice. ‘She was dead in Euryale’s dungeon. She gave this to me, your highness. And I am a Hand of Life as well.’
‘You are? Hand,’ he stammered. ‘You were a prisoner to the beast? I cannot believe it. And you are here? How did you … tell me everything!’
‘Father,’ Shinna said. ‘Hearing such tales are fine indeed, but suffice it to say she escaped the place and was nearly captured by the Coinar, and we rescued her. Now, as for Aloise? She cannot spare the time for tales,’ Shinna said with mild reproof.
The father of the girls nodded, pointing at the bed. ‘Heal her, Hand. And you shall ask for anything. You could, anyway, but a father is more grateful than a mere lord of a house.’
I nodded. The damage to the girl was massive. Terrible. Far worse than Ompar’s wounds had been. She was missing bone, even, and I wept as her horrified eyes watched my approach.
I prayed to the gods. I did. I prayed for help, and I remembered Euryale’s many lessons in the art of magic, how to push myself further and further, and with Silver Maw, that was very far. I filled myself with enough power to make all my fibers scream for mercy, and then I gathered more. This was it. This would buy me the Regent. I would do it, and Euryale would have no more plans. I braided and pulled the deeper energies of the Glory’s finest powers.
Then I released them.
I threw my hands forward as I reached the poor elf. I felt the power leave me. Windows banged closed and open, and all the healing flowed from me to the room, enclosing Aloise with the soothing and knitting energies. I was pulled forward with the power and went to my knees before her. Her flesh knit miraculously, her bones settled and grew. Her flesh curled around bones; muscles rebuilt, and fat and skin grew back. I slumped, sobbing with pain. The evil, devouring creatures were dead. They were no longer ethereal, but real, and the stick-like things covered her skin in heaps, and they were dead, falling to the sheets. I saw she was nearly well, with raw wounds in a few places, and I braided the powers once again though not as much as I had by far, and let them go. The final gashes healed, her hair returned to near blonde, her eyes brightened, and I realized by the sudden silence that she had been screaming like a possessed thing. I had not heard it as I had filled myself with the glorious power.
Asfalon pulled me away and hugged me fiercely. Shinna shot past me and cradled her face. ‘Father! She did it! Aloise is healed!’
‘The baby?’ I asked, with a gasp.
‘I am not sure,’ Shinna said, putting her hand on Aloise’s belly. ‘Father! Come and help! Is the baby alive?’
And Talien came.
I saw him tap a ring and whisper a word “Baduhanna”, and I rushed forward as the strange red-hued energy disappeared. He cradled his daughter, put his hand on the belly of the pregnant elf and waited. Then he smiled, the old, ancient face clearly unused to doing so. ‘It is alive.’ Shinna gave him her hand, elated.
He grasped Shinna’s hand in superb happiness.
And then Euryale’s plans came together.
It all happened so very fast.
I saw Shinna’s other hand shoot forward. In it, there was a familiar item. It was one of the Bone Fetters Euryale had used to control us, to shut us from the Glory. It was a simple silver bracelet. Shinna held onto the Talien lord. Her hand pulled off. A finger cracked. The ring came off. The other hand replaced her first hand, and the shackle entered the wrist. The high lord shot back from his daughter, eyes shocked, but the damage was done. The shackle was melting. It was melting like butter, and then it was burning, spreading, making intricate symbols under his skin. Talien fell to the floor, howling, and I remember the pain we had endured as the Bone Fetter ate into the bones. I instinctively began to move, but I was knocked down, and a blade was put on my back. ‘Stay still, Hand,’ Asfalon said. ‘It will be over soon.’
‘Stop it!’ I screamed, but Shinna only smiled at me.
‘It will stop momentarily,’ she said. ‘Watch!’
Talien, the mightiest maa’dark in the land was screaming as the sigils burned fiery hot in his arm and fingers. And then they went cool. His sigil was a combination of red twirls and ice cold curls. The old lord shot up from the floor, hoping to release a deadly spell. Shinna snapped her fingers. Talien stared around, stupefied. I knew what that meant. He had been cut off from the Glory. ‘Remember, love, how we did that in the school? Snap, snap, and you lot sulked. The dragon controls yours now, but this one is mine.’ She showed a familiar ring on her finger as she briefly admired the one she had taken from Talien Safiroon. ‘And now, to dismantle the mightiest weapon of Himingborg and the defender of Freyr’s Tooth.’
Shinna pulled a dagger, long and serpentine, and rammed it in Talien’s chest. Aloise was gasping as her father fell back, his eyes closed, his face tight with the sudden pain of death. He tottered around, gasping and fell on his face and did not move again. I saw his spirit; a bright, raging spirit stand still, and then he winked away. He was dead.
Asfalon spoke to me. ‘You see, I do want the gods returned. Only Danar Coinar is willing to try that, eventually. Father would not do it. No. I am sorry, Shannon, but he would not do it even if Aloise is healed. We will take the land. Danar Coinar will be rewarded with the crown. And Euryale? She will be allowed control of the Eye, and we will rule the land.’ He nodded for Shinna.
‘Euryale?’ I asked, my heart hammering with dread.
Shinna grinned. But it was not Euryale.
Shinna melted in size. What stood before me was Cherry. She bowed to me with her impish smile and again changed. A beautiful female form took her place. She was pale, dressed in barbaric meshed armor that left her legs bare, and her eyes were cold and lifeless, near dark. A sea of black snakes
swarmed around her head and shoulders. It was Cosia the Gorgon, and she was the only other maa’dark I know of who knew a spell of change besides Hannea.
She smiled, her fangs shining. ‘You see, we never hosted a group of the Dark Levy without having one of us keep a very close eye on all of you. “Cherry” died the day you arrived. I cast a spell of change on one of our sister Gorgons, and she looked after you for two years. And here we are, finally. Talien Safiroon is dead, and Himingborg will fall.’
CHAPTER 16
I reacted. I whipped my elbow back. Asfalon fell away with a shriek, and his dagger drew sparks from the Silver Maw. I braided together ice and frigid waters and let them go. Ice hands groped for the beast woman, tearing at the bed and the chairs, but Cosia was deft, nearly as ancient as her mistress and a Fury Whip of the Dark Water clan, a fighter of the first class. She rolled free of the spell, filled the chamber with fumes of the fires of Muspelheim and shadows sprung up around me as she disappeared. I whipped out the sword and slashed where she had been, only to get pushed forward violently. I fell on my face; a heavy foot was placed on my back. I struggled, but she whispered to me. ‘Dana,’ she said maliciously.
‘Dana?’ I spat.
‘You did nearly make a mess of it in Trad. Tried to be rid of all of them, so they would be safe? But I had the lot taken to another ship, and we sailed after you, and they were all brought here. I came on board and took Shinna’s place. They are held in the Coinar ship now, girl. All of them,’ she said. ‘Still alive.’
‘You … bitch whore of Hades.’
‘Relax,’ she said, unimpressed by my insult. ‘Yes, we have her. Them. Again. It’s too late now anyway to change anything.’
‘Let her live!’ I yelled. ‘And Aloise!’
‘Access the Shades once more, only one more spell, Shannon, and I shall roast her on the bed, and Dana you will find sleeping eternally in the Croft with the great mages of past. She might not be like them, being human, but she might have been a great maa’dark one day. I loved her greed. Didn’t you? But now, she will die if you misbehave.’
Eye of Hel: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Ten Tears Chronicles - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 2) Page 22
